#29 - The Endangered Kiwi Bird

We had only intended to stay for 4 nights on Lake Taupo.  But when we saw the sunset the first night there we decided to extend our stay to a week.

This photo was taken from our lakeside room and it looked like this every night we were there.

So what does someone do for a full week in Lake Taupo?  Day trips around the area, especially Rotorua, took us to all kinds of sites and activities in this fantastic part of New Zealand.  The blogs that follow will give you some idea of what we did (mingled with sheep, did some serious stargazing, and oh yes, went sky diving).

One of the first things we did was get tickets to the National Kiwi Hatchery at Rainbow Springs Nature Park in Rotorua.

The kiwi (bird, not person) is on the endangered list, as only 5% of the eggs laid in the wild actually hatch with the little ones surviving.  So this Conservation group goes out and finds the eggs from burrows in 15 different forests around the country and brings them back to this safe place where they are incubated.  Once hatched and at a size and weight where they can survive, they are released back into the wild.  This process results in a 98% survival rate.

So the kiwi is a flightless bird, the size of a chicken, and is nocturnal.  Why flightless?  Many, many years ago, the continents were all attached.   When New Zealand broke loose and drifted away from the other lands there were no mammals (except some bats) and therefore no terrestrial predators to endanger the kiwi and other bird population.  Most birds were perfectly safe staying on the ground to nest and forage for food.  So when it comes to wings, it’s “use it or lose it”.

So the kiwi, along with several other species of birds, lost their ability to fly.  Meanwhile, the European settlers arrived and they brought rabbits for food.  BTW, they also introduced the rats that had stowed away on their ships.   But soon the population of rabbits got out of hand.  (Hello??  What did they think would happen?). So they imported stoats (in the ferret family) and weasels to kill the rabbits.  In theory, that was fine.  But the stoats found it a lot easier to grab a kiwi egg from a nest for dinner than to chase down a rabbit.  So in a relatively short period of time the kiwi population dwindled.  There is much evidence that the rabbits are still doing fine.

It’s not easy being a kiwi bird.  The females lay one of the largest eggs in relation to their body size of any bird in the world.  The egg is about 6 times the size you would expect it would lay.  Her pregnant belly bulges so much it touches the ground.  She has to walk with her legs wide apart to accommodate it.  (Editorial note: maybe walking that way is what got her pregnant to begin with).  A female brown kiwi can lay up to 200 eggs in her lifetime.

Once the mother lays its huge egg, she might take off for a while, leaving the father to incubate the egg.  He develops a bare patch of belly skin.  This area has no feathers and the warm blood vessels close to the surface keep the egg warm.  But then a strange thing happens.  For the last week before it hatches, Dad wanders off leaving the egg along.  Supposedly he is off foraging for food. (But Mrs. Kiwi has her suspicions!). Actually kiwi birds are among the few species that tend to live as a monogamous couple, often mating for life.  I wonder if they renew their wedding vows like Jeff and I did?

Back to the babies.  The chick has an exhausting job of kicking and pecking its way out.  This can take up to 3 days.  They hatch as mini adults, fully feathered and open-eyed.  Much of that egg is filled with yolk on which the chick survives for several days.  On about day 5 it begins to venture outside the burrow where it has to fend off its primary predator, the stoat.  But rats, cats, dogs and other animals also find the baby chicks to be a tasty meal.  Is it any wonder the kiwi is on the endangered list?

While we’re on the subject of endangered species, the story of the Moa is quite sad.  This flightless bird was endemic to New Zealand and had a good life until the Maori arrived.  The Moa is similar to an emu or ostrich and grew to 6 feel tall and could weigh over 500 pounds.

As you can imagine, one of these made for a sizeable meal for a human and they were fairly easy targets.  Their eggs were also apparently tasty.  So the Maori hunted them where they lived in the forests.  When they couldn’t get enough with their bows and arrows, they began to burn the forests to drive out the birds.  What trees they didn’t burn, they chopped down to use for building boats and houses, etc.  It is believed that within 30-40 years the Moa had no more place to live and nothing more to eat (forest “food” all gone), and so the species became extinct.  And what happened to all the other living things in the forest is yet another story.